Tech mogul Elon Musk is being sued by a Texas resident who says the billionaire misidentifying him in a social media post led to him being harassed and doxed.
According to the lawsuit, filed in Travis County, Texas, this week, Ben Brody, 22, was falsely associated with a brawl between the far-right Proud Boys and a rival hard-core group during an Oregon pride event in June.
The video, posted on X shortly after the event on June 24, shows Proud Boys fighting with Rose City Nationalists, many of whom were masked. Several users accused Mr. Brody of being a member of the Rose City Nationalists.
On June 26, conservative X user Matt Wallace posted a photo of one of the unmasked Rose City Nationalists. In the post, Mr. Wallace identified the protestor as Mr. Brody and accused him of being a federal agent, pointing to Mr. Brody’s interest in working for the government.
“Remember When They Called Us Conspiracy Theorists For Saying The Feds Were Planting Fake Nazis at Rallies?” the post reads.
Mr. Musk responded to the claim with “Always remove their masks.”
After learning about the accusations, Mr. Brody posted a video trying to debunk the claims made by conservatives and Mr. Musk. In the video, he provides evidence that he wasn’t in Oregon at the time and was in fact in California. Mr. Musk was tagged several times in the video but did not respond or retract his statements.
The next day, Mr. Musk amplified the claim in a reply to a post that has been deleted: “Looks like one is a college student (who wants to join the govt) and the other is maybe an Antifa member, but nonetheless a probable false flag situation.”
Despite the original post being erased, Mr. Musk‘s post remains on the site.
According to the lawsuit, Mr. Brody and his family were subjected to threats as a result of Mr. Musk’s posts. The lawsuit also claims Mr. Brody was the victim of doxing, a practice where a user’s personal information is leaked online, after Mr. Musk amplified the conspiracy theories.
“Ben’s lawsuit discusses the aftermath of this incident,” Mr. Brody’s lawyer Mark Bankston wrote on X. “Ben and his family were doxed and suffered an enormous wave of harassment and threats from belligerent strangers.”
Mr. Brody is seeking a jury trial in Texas as well as damages of at least $1 million.
